EVENTS at HOUSMANS

We regularly have a variety of events in the shop, and are always welcome for suggestions from authors, artists and campaigners who want to use the shop for evening events. Past events include talks, book signings, film screenings, art exhibitions and musical performances.

Click here for an archive; which includes a number of selected filmed highlights, of our previous events. Also, you can view video from some special events here.

Click the following button if you would like to directly add our events to your smartphone or desktop calendar using Google Calendar.

‘Frack Off London’
Saturday 25th May, 6.30pm
Free entry

Come join Frack Off London for a film evening to learn more about fracking and other forms of unconventional gas extraction coming to the UK. Many of the companies bringing these destructive processes are based right here in London. Together we can stop fracking and other forms of extreme energy coming to the UK and tell these companies to "Frack Off!"

BOOK TALK

‘Introducing Slavoj Žižek’
with Christopher Kul-Want

Wednesday 29th May, 7pm

Entry £3, redeemable against any purchase

An introduction to the thinking of the political philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Zizek.

Slavoj Žižek’s frequent newspaper op-eds, and popular academic books have gained him a wide following and international influence. Foreign Policy listed him on its 2012 list of Top 100 Global Thinkers, calling him "a celebrity philosopher."

He has written widely on political theory, film theory, and theoretical psychoanalysis, and went on to achieve international recognition as a social theorist after the 1989 publication of his first book in English, ‘The Sublime Object of Ideology’, which disputed a Marxist interpretation of ideology as false consciousness and argued for ideology as an unconscious fantasy that structures reality.

His later writing tends to concentrate on political theory, with a string of books covering a wide range of topics. The scope of his output can make his overall thinking hard to pin down, and so it is with great pleasure that we welcome the Central St Martins lecturer Christopher Kul-Want to discuss his book ‘Introducing Slavoj Žižek’. Christopher will be giving an overview of Žižek’s life and writing, and pulling together the threads that run throughout the long body of his work.

Title Information

‘Introducing Slavoj Zizek: A Graphic Guide’ Christopher Kul-Want (Author), Piero (Illustrator)
Paperback: 176 pages

Publisher: Icon Books Ltd (1 Sep 2011)

Click here to buy

‘Black Star, Crescent Moon’
with Sohail Daulatzai in conversation with Sukant Chandan

Saturday 8th June, 6.30pm
Free entry

A discussion of US academic Daulatzai’s new book ‘Black Star, Crescent Moon’, which considers the role of Islam in traditions of resistance to, and liberation from, Western imperialism. Areas covered in the book include the impact of the Nation of Islam on Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, to cultural manifestations in hip-hop and cinema.

‘Remembering Clara Zetkin’

with guests from the Socialist History Society
Wednesday 12th June, 7pm

Entry £3, redeemable against any purchase

Launch event for a new SHS publication to mark the 80th anniversary of the death of Clara Zetkin, a leading figure in the German Social Democratic Party, the Spartacist League and the German Communist Party. She was the founder of the Socialist Women's International, but also a fierce critic of what she saw as the shortcomings of bourgeois feminism. Our guests discuss her legacy and its relevance.

War Resisters’ International present

‘Countering the Militarisation of Youth’

with David Gee, Ozgur Heval Cinar and Maayan Niezna
Thursday 13th June, 7pm

Free entry

Launch of War Resisters' International's latest book, which explores the ways in which young people around the world encounter the military and military values - and are encouraged to embrace them uncritically - and how this can be challenged.

Speaking at the event will be:

David Gee - who will talk about his article on how military recruitment often focuses on poor and ethnic minority young people, and possibly on the militarisation of young people in the UK more generally

Ozgur Heval Cinar - who will talk about the situation in Turkey (the idea that 'every Turk is born a soldier' etc)

Maayan Niezna - who will talk about the situation in Israel.

Presented and chaired by Owen and Hannah of WRI.

‘Poor Man's Heaven: the Land of Cokaygne
and other utopian visions’
with Omasius Gorgut

Wednesday 19th June, 7pm

Entry £3, redeemable against any purchase

“We’ll eat all we please from ham and egg trees
that grow by a lake full of beer…
The landlord well take and tie to a stake
and we won’t have to work like a slave...

In the face of a life defined by exploitation and suffering, the poor of the Middle Ages dreamed up a fantastical land where their sufferings were reversed; where people lived in idleness and plenty and the rich were barred.

In a popular song, The Land of Cokaygne, rivers ran with wine and milk, the houses were made of pasties and tarts, and animals ran around cooked and ready to eat.

From 14th-century Europe to 20th-century USA, this dream emerges in songs, poems, folk tales. But it wasn’t just a popular fantasy – the dream was linked to the culture and tensions of the times, and time and again rebels and heretics tried to turn dream into reality…

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Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, King’s Cross,
London, N1 9DX
tel: 020 7837 4473
  e: shop@housmans.com
www.housmans.com